Runaway
by omni82
Summary: *Complete* A piece about being lonely in a crowd. Mitsukake and Chiriko are Suzaku seishi in name only. What will it take to make them a family?


Disclaimer: I don't own FY. I don't own Mitsukake though I really, really wish I did.   
~ My dog Jill is sitting at my feet, disapproving the action sequence of this story. It must be because she is gray and fuzzy. She is definitely no wolf, though. Wolves aren't terrified by brooms. Poor baby. ~   
  
Runaway  
By: omni82  
  
"Miaka."  
  
"Tamahome."  
  
"Miaka."  
  
The snows of Hokkan were cold, but not as cold as the shoulders presented to us by the Priestess of Suzaku and her first seishi. I can't say I really blame the two. If it were I and Shoka in their respective places, I'm sure we'd do something similar. Love has a funny way of turning your eyes from the outside world and painting your beloved in the rosiest light. I'm sure Miaka didn't notice the fact that Tamahome's left eye was slightly bigger than the right. And I'm doubly certain he didn't notice that Miaka had spinach in her teeth.  
  
Yes, the cramped quarters were definitely getting to me. We had sailed through the pass and arrived in Hokkan two weeks ago. Since then, it had been constant traveling, constant movement, and constant isolation. For me at least.   
  
Despite Taiitsukun's warning that they must not consummate their love, Miaka and Tamahome seemed closer than ever. They spent most of their time riding double and talking about everything that came to their minds. With Hotohori left behind in Konan, Nuriko transferred his attentions to Tasuki and the two of them fooled around and chatted as they rode as well. Because I was too big to have a second rider and Chiriko too small to ride alone, the youngest seishi perched up on a placid mare with Chichiri who was the constant go-between for Tasuki and Tamahome or Tasuki and Nuriko or Nuriko and Tamahome.   
  
I brought up the rear. Alone.   
  
Tonight, we stopped in a bustling inn that was warm, thank Suzaku, with great food. I was starving but reigned myself in. On our budget, we couldn't afford two people eating like they had never seen food in their lives. For my priestess, I would eat no more than what was expected of me.   
  
The meal was half done (meaning that Miaka had gone through about half of the food) when Chiriko asked to be excused. Most everyone just nodded as he got up but I gave him an understanding smile. Like myself, Chiriko craved his quiet time. Academic activity was not exactly a team sport. I never knew just how to tell him that I understood what he was feeling. He was the last seishi found. I was the sixth seishi found before many extraordinary happenstances. Time hadn't permitted us to connect as fully to the others as Tamahome or Nuriko or Tasuki did. Our introversion hadn't helped either. We were thinkers in a group of doers and that united us to each other in a way that was unique. But I never said that to him. I hope that some day I will.   
  
"Oi, Mitsukake!" Tasuki crowed cheerfully. "Get ready for another patient because Tama here is about to be deep-fried!" Everyone laughed as the bandit waved his tessen around. I hadn't been paying attention to the conversation but I suspect that it was much like all the others that I hadn't been invited to join. Here was my invitation at last, my chance to join the gang.  
  
"I'm a doctor, not a cook Tasuki. I can't promise you anything." I thought it was lame but the table exploded with laughter. They went on and on about how I was silent but deadly and how I was the hidden funny man.   
  
And then the conversation restarted without me.   
  
I tried not to be bitter but I was. In moments like these, I really, really miss Shoka. I do. With her, I wasn't silent but thoughtful. I was the center of her universe and I liked it. No, as Tasuki would say, I fucking loved it. The fringe was a place that no one wanted to be yet here I was. I wanted them to pay attention to me like they did to Tamahome or Tasuki. But they didn't and it was making me madder than hell. Brusquely, I pushed out of my seat and excused myself. They looked dumbfounded at my sudden departure and that only made me madder. Why were they surprised?   
  
Walking away was hard because I didn't want to be alone. I was of the Suzaku and I wanted that to be true not only in words. I would go and stand in the snow until my temper cooled off. I would apologize for my rudeness later after the sting of it hurt less.  
  
It was so cold outside that the moment I stepped out, steam began radiating off my unprotected skin like smoke off a burning log. I would only stand out here a few minutes lest I chance frostbite. There was no one to heal me if that should occur. Funny how I was almost tempted to let it happen. You know, to see who would be the one to nurse me back to health.  
  
But above all, I am a practical man. As soon as my fingers started turning blue, I made to go inside. Brushing the snow from my hair and shoulders, I enclosed myself back inside the warm kitchens. Several cooks stared at me, the frozen and obviously stupid giant from the south. I internally agreed with their assessment. No intelligent person would sit outside in this blizzard.   
  
The others had left the table, probably retired to their respective rooms for the night. I was supposed to be bunked with Tasuki for the night while Miaka and Nuriko shared a small room and the others a room next to mine. I wondered who had thought of that ridiculous arrangement. The way Tasuki slept, all sprawled out, would leave me no room at all tonight considering the miniscule dimensions of the place. I sighed but lumbered up to the third door on the left which the innkeeper had assured me was mine.   
  
On the door a note was tacked. It was written in a messy sprawl, much like how the writer slept. Tasuki was informing me that he and Chiriko had switched rooms. The bandit would be spending the night with Tamahome and Chichiri. I felt bad for Chichiri but glad for myself. Chiriko was a tiny tidy sleeper who didn't snore or fling his limbs out every which way.   
  
"Hello, Chiriko," I greeted the youngest of Suzaku kindly. He was seated on the bed, already dressed in his sleeping yukata. His hair was out of its accustomed ponytail and he was writing furiously in a journal.   
  
"Hi." He replied, returning his attentions back to the book just as quickly as he had left it. Okay, he definitely wasn't in the mood to talk. He seemed a little distracted, a little upset. I decided to keep my eye on him but not to pry. If he didn't want to talk, I wasn't going to force him.  
  
I began to busily set the room up for our stay. From my pack, I drew out my pajamas, a change of clothes for tomorrow, and a small pillow for Tama-neko to sleep on. From the corners of my eyes, I caught random glimpses of Chiriko staring at me.  
  
"Good-night Chiriko," I murmured as I settled down to sleep. I nearly didn't hear his reply.  
  
"Good-bye, Mitsukake." His voice had a genuine sleepy quality to it. Nevertheless, his words sent a chill up my spine. In the dark, I peered at him. My fallible eyes could see only the faint movement of his chest moving rhythmically up and down. He was asleep. Perhaps his wording had just been a slip of the tongue. I vowed to sleep lightly tonight in case he needed me.   
  
But the toll of the day affected me more deeply than expected and I slipped into a heavy slumber. Sometime after midnight, the room became very cold. The temperature outside was well below freezing after dinner and by now it must have been sub-arctic, so it confused my half-conscious mind why on earth the window would be open. Rolling out of bed, I shut it firmly noting that it had begun to snow again. As I pulled the covers back over my head, my logical mind started pestering me over the window. I hadn't opened it. That left Chiriko to have done the deed. And why would he expose us to the elements if he wasn't feeling feverish?  
  
"Chiriko, do you feel alright?" I inquired in the dark, my voice rough with exhaustion. There was no answer. I repeated myself louder this time, in case the boy was sleeping. Still, no answer.  
  
I got out of bed a second time and crossed the frigid floor to the second bed. "Chiriko?" I put my hand down to where Chiriko's forehead should have been. When my fingers met cool pillow, I wondered if I had somehow missed him in this little bed. As I woke up more, I realized that Chiriko wasn't in bed or in the room and hadn't been in some time.   
  
Shock made me clumsy and I stumbled over furniture as I fumbled to light a candle. Even the muted light of the tallow made my eyes hurt. But there was no denying that Chiriko was gone. The bed was neatly made and all his belongings had vanished. Clearly, he had not been abducted. But where was he now and why had he left?   
  
I pulled on a shirt and lurched out into the hallways. Frantically, I began pounding on the doors of my fellow seishi. Wherever Chiriko was, we had to find him quickly. The night was too cold for anyone to be outside. The young seishi could be dead from hypothermia by now or close to it.   
  
"What's goin' on Mitsukake?" Tasuki slurred as he stuck his neck out the door. Up and down the hall way, Suzaku seishi began pouring out of rooms in various states of awareness and various states of undress.   
  
"Chiriko's missing!" I explained frantically.   
  
"Where is he?" Tasuki asked me, being not too awake at this point. I rolled my eyes which was a happy alternative to strangling the dense man.  
  
"I don't know where he is; that's why he's missing. And he's taken all of his belongings with him."   
  
"We have to find him," Nuriko explained to the comprehension-less. "No one could stay outside tonight for very long. It's too cold."   
  
"Right," Tamahome said. "Everyone split up. Miaka, start looking inside and make sure to ask everyone if they saw him. The rest of us should bundle up because there is no telling how far out he's gone."   
  
Everyone dashed back into their rooms, myself included. I pulled on as many layers of clothing as would fit. I may have looked ridiculous but I would probably last longer than any of the rest.   
  
We ran out the back, out the same door I had gone earlier this morning. I waded through the snow to the east side of the building. From there, I could see our window the way Chiriko must have escaped. Too much snow had already fallen for me to be able to follow his tracks so I let intuition guide me. There must have been someplace near here for him to go. Chiriko would have known that he wouldn't have lasted long outside. He was smart.   
  
I fought my way through the snow, bellowing Chiriko's name as I went. My voice startled the silent night as its desperate volume threaded through bare trees. The sky seemed impossibly high and the forest impossibly wide. One of many things could have happened to my small brother. What if he had been set upon by wolves? What if he got too cold and fell asleep in the snow? What if I couldn't find him in time?  
  
I kept shouting his name. Distantly, I could hear the others shouting the same thing. 'Chiriko' became our common mantra. I hope it brought success to us.   
  
"Help." Had my imagination begun playing tricks on me? Off to my left I heard it again. A faint cry for help was weaving its way through the trees. I broke into a lumbering run, going as fast as the snow drifts permitted. I fell once, twice, three times before coming upon a scene that made my blood run cold.  
  
I would have missed it if not for the blood. A pack of wolves circled their downed prey, so many lupine faces grinning with malicious intent. The voice belonged to the mauled carcass.   
  
"Help me. Help, Mitsukake."   
  
"Chiriko…My god." His blood seeped in the snow, spreading the crimson color around him like a blanket. He was barely standing, one sturdy tree branch in his hand. His round face lit up with indelible relief just as the largest wolf sprang upon him.   
  
"CHIRIKO!!!" As Nuriko told me later, my shout was loud enough to bring the rest of the warriors running.   
  
I leapt into the fray, pulling the alpha-dog off my young friend. Chiriko was unconscious and bleeding heavily from a wound in the neck. I didn't have the chance to heal him as the wolf in my arms snapped and growled at me. I threw him as far away from us as I could. The mangy gray animal hit a nearby pine and with a short yelp lay still.   
  
Three more wolves tackled me, pulling me to the ground. Sharp teeth sank into flesh in many places but by then I was too enraged to feel pain. I may not be as strong as Nuriko but sheer size gave me an advantage. Ripping the branch free from Chiriko's tight grip, I bludgeoned the animal attached to my right forearm. He cried out, releasing my arm enough to get purchase on the furry throat. I squeezed.   
  
That wolf was dispatched quickly and using the club, I dislodged the wolves hanging from my left shoulder and left leg. My vision began to darken as I stood up. There were six more wolves circling Chiriko and I. There was no way I would ever be able to fight them off now so I gathered Chiriko in my arms and tried to outrun them. Summoning my healing power as I ran, I managed to close the wounds on the boy's body. But the fight and the use of my abilities proved too much and my pace slowed enough to give the canine fiends time to shorten the distance. I fell to the ground as they tackled me, my body covering Chiriko as best I could. Just before succumbing to oblivion, I felt a familiar searing heat pass above me.   
  
Pain  
  
I'm on fire…the wolves are burning me. Chiriko…run. Run!!!  
  
"Mitsukake! Mitsukake, wake up. It's just a dream. It's just a dream." I struggled to open my eyes. Light shone in my room back at the inn, hitting my face. Miaka sat at my bedside, a damp cloth in her hand. She smiled at me.   
  
"I'm glad you're okay. You've had a fever for three days now."   
  
"So it was you," I mumbled, half-aware of my surroundings and drugged up enough to let my mind run my mouth off.   
  
"What was me, Mitsukake?" Miaka queried gently. She placed another cool cloth on my forehead and patted my hand.   
  
"I always wondered who would take care of me if I were sick. I figured that I would be left at some inn to recuperate." A thought struck my mind with all the force of a sledgehammer. "That's what you did! You left me here on my own!" I roared, surging out of bed. I was out of my head with rage. Nuriko later told me that it took him, Tasuki, and Chichiri to restrain and sedate me.   
  
I don't remember any of that but I do recall snatches of concerned conversation and a sweet voice singing to me. When I awoke it was dark. At my heavily bandaged knee, a small head rested, snoring lightly. I permitted myself a grin that pulled at the stitches in my neck. The pain was of no consequence to me at that point. I wasn't alone to bear it in this darkness. Scattered across every part of the tiny room were the sleeping Suzaku seishi and the Priestess. Chiriko sat slumped in a stool at my side, his head near my leg. On his cherubic face was the same smile I wore now. We weren't lonely now. We were finally of the Suzaku seishi.   
Finally.  
  
  
End 


End file.
